This invention relates to air blast crop sprayers, and, more particularly, to an inductor nozzle assembly for use with an air blast crop sprayer to deposit charged, atomized pesticides onto fruit trees in an orchard.
Air blast sprayers are commonly used to apply pesticides to fruit trees in an orchard, grapevines, and, to a lesser extent, on row crops. Commercially available sprayers of this type generally include a frame adapted to be pulled by a truck or tractor, a tank mounted on the forward end of the frame which holds a mixture of water and pesticide, delivery lines connected to the tank which mount a plurality of spaced spray nozzles and an air blast fan mounted at the rearward end of the frame in close proximity to the spray nozzles. The waterborne pesticide is pumped under pressure through the delivery lines to the nozzles where it is ejected in atomized form and then propelled onto fruit trees in an orchard or grapevines by a high velocity air stream produced by the air blast fan.
The spray nozzles used in most commercially available air blast sprayers are airless nozzles which eject a stream of atomized waterborne pesticide in a variety of spray patterns depending upon the configuration of the discharge orifice of the nozzle. Several nozzles of this type are mounted along the chemical delivery lines of the air blast sprayer and form essentially a mist of waterborne pesticide which is entrained in the air stream produced by the air blast fan and propelled toward the adjacent trees.
One problem with the application of waterborne pesticides in this manner is that complete coverage of the trees is not assured. The waterborne pesticide in atomized form is subject to evaporation before it reaches the tree, and the pesticide which does reach the tree can drip off of the leaves and branches like rainwater. Accordingly, a relatively large quantity of pesticide is required per acre to achieve acceptable coverage of trees, vines or row crops.